Vigilantism and Its Impact on Minorities

Vigilantism and Its Impact on Minorities Presented by: Dr. Póczik Date: 3 September 2023 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CRIMINOLOGY, Budapest - NIC • Research center of the General Prosecutor's Office • Largest criminological research institute in the ECE region • Focus on empirical researches of crime, victimization, crime control, penal material and procedural law etc. - My research fields: • Empirical researches on • Crime and victimization of social and ethnic minorities, • Migrant groups, • Xenophobia, extremism, • Political violence and terrorism • Organized crime. International Research Project On Vigilantism 2018-2019 - Initiated by Oslo University, Tomas Masaryk University, Czech Republic, GLOBSEC Institute, Bratislava, Routledge Publ. House. - Leaders: Tore Bjørgo, Professor at the Oslo University, Miroslav Mareš, Professor at the Masaryk University, Czech Republic - Focus on COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: - Contributions from Western and Eastern Europe, North America and Asia. Each study examined the national social and political context, the purpose of the vigilante group, organization, activity, communications, social media strategy and relationship to the main social actors and institutions. - Project results: • 17 national case studies / country reports 2 theoretical studies • Published at Routledge 2019 Chapters & Authors - 1 Vigilantism against migrants and minorities: Concepts and goals of current research • - 2 Ku Klux Klan: Vigilantism against blacks, immigrants and other minorities • - Nadya Stoynova and Rositsa Dzhekova 11 Vigilantism in Greece: The case of the Golden Dawn • - Harel Shapira 10 Vigilantism against ethnic minorities and migrants in Bulgaria • - Miroslav Mare š and Daniel Milo 9 The Minutemen: Patrolling and performativity along the U.S. / Mexico border • - Szilveszter Póczik and Eszter Sárik 8 Vigilantism against migrants and minorities in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic • - Daniel Koehler 7 Vigilante militias and activities against Roma and migrants in Hungary • - Martin Lary 6 Anti-immigration militias and vigilante groups in Germany: An overview • - Juhi Ahuja 5 Violent attacks against migrants and minorities in the Russian Federation • - Nir Gazit 4 Protecting holy cows: Hindu vigilantism against Muslims in India • - Kathleen Blee and Mehr Latif 3 Jewish vigilantism in the West Bank • - Miroslav Mare š and Tore Bjørgo Christos Vrakopoulos and Daphne Halikiopoulou 12 Forza Nuova and the security walks: Squadrismo and extreme-right vigilantism in Italy • - 13 Beyond the hand of the state: Vigilantism against migrants and refugees in France • - Pietro Castelli Gattinara Pietro Castelli Gattinara 14 Vigilantism in the United Kingdom: Britain First and 'Operation Fightback' • - 15 The Soldiers of Odin Finland: From a local movement to an international franchise • - Emil Archambault and Yannick Veilleux-Lepage 18 Pop-up vigilantism and fascist patrols in Sweden • - Tore Bjørgo and Ingvild Magnæs Gjelsvik 17 The Soldiers of Odin in Canada: The failure of a transnational ideology • - Tommi Kotonen 16 Sheep in wolf's clothing?: The taming of the Soldiers of Odin in Norway • - Elizabeth Ralph-Morrow Mattias Gardell 19 Comparative perspectives on vigilantism against migrants and minorities • Tore Bjørgo and Miroslav Mare š Definition & Basic Questions - The core definition: VIGILANTISM • Is organized civilian activity in a policing role without legal authorization, • Using or displaying violence, • Claiming that the police or other homeland security agencies are unable or unwilling to handle the (subjectively) perceived crime problem. • "Informal policing" goal: maintaining law and the social order. • Vigilantism is a challenge for the fundamental characteristics of statehood: the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force. - Basic questions • What are the reasons, goals or purposes of vigilante activism? (Justifications, group strategies, individual motivations). • Under what circumstances do the vigilante activities emerge, flourish and fail? (facilitating and mitigating, permissive and repressive factors) • What is vigilante groups' relationships with the political parties, authorities, police? General Typology Of Vigilantism (Goals) - Vigilantism can be categorized according to various criteria. • 1. Crime control vigilantism: directed against people believed to be committing criminal acts proscribed by the formal legal system: no political motivation • 2. Social group control vigilantism: violence directed against groups that are trying a redistribution of, values within the system (ethnics, migrants, confessions, LGBTQ+, other minorities): political motivation • 3. Regime control vigilantism: use violence by / against established groups to preserve/to change the status quo when the formal system of rule enforcement is viewed as ineffective:  Implicit/explicit political agenda (far left or far right)